Implications for practice and research

■ There is hope for adults who were obese as children that they still can avoid serious health consequences by losing weight.
Nurses can use these findings to help overweight and obese adults to see real benefits for losing weight.

■ The fact that 64% of those overweight or obese (and 82% of those who were obese) as children were obese as adults, whereas
less than 15% who were normal weight as children became obese as adults, provides compelling impetus for childhood obesity
prevention and treatment. Since the damage to health was found to occur in overweight and obese adults, regardless of their
childhood weight status, obesity prevention and …